Founding Stories

Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

The Stone Soup tale provides a tested recipe for leading social change by creating a public square to meet social needs.

Ubuntu

Each individual’s humanity is ideally expressed through his or her relationship with others and theirs in turn through recognition of the individual’s humanity.

Moccasins

Empathy, understanding, and an aggressively nonjudgmental world outlook are essential attributes to leading social change.

Be The Change

Gandhi’s life is a powerful example of what can be accomplished through living the change you wish to see in the world.

Love & Joy

I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.

Seven Generations

In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.

Beloved Community

Among Dr. King’s most compelling visions is that of a Beloved Community – a community in which people of different backgrounds recognize that we are all interconnected and that our individual well-being is inextricably linked to the well-being of others.

Bridge Builder

Bridge building is a powerful metaphor, and tool, for social change. Seeing and making connections– whether among people or ideas – is a hallmark of bridge builders, whose lives are rooted in values and who dedicate their time and energy to causes larger than themselves.

Cathedral Building

Our specific role may at times seem minor relative to the larger effort, but each role, each activity,contributes in some way toward the larger goal.

Everybody Can Be Great

Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.

It Takes A Village

It takes a whole village to raise a child because a child is an active social being who interacts with people who are not his or her parents.

It's In Your Hands

When we offer others the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions and to make good choices, we offer pathways to empowerment and dignity.

The Long Walk

For Nelson Mandela, the goals of “freedom” for himself and for his country have been achieved. But the “long walk” continues because freedom brought with it the “responsibilities” of democracy and selfgovernment for a new nation, as well as the difficult task of reconciliation.

Night Into Day

We must be deliberate and assertive in forming bonds of friendship, partnership, and common purpose among people who, on the surface, seem different than ourselves.

Sand Into Diamonds

Time and perspective will turn those experiences into a valued asset as you take on the difficult paths ahead.

Shoulders Of Giants

We can’t all be the great figures whose names live on, but Newton reminds us that the behind-the-scenes work done away from the limelight can add up to a giant, on whose shoulders the famous few stand to push their heads into view.

Lever

The idea that the right place and the right tool used together can indeed change the world.

The Lighthouse

As idealists and change makers, we are eager to see transformation and excited by the opportunity to make a difference, yet we may find our humility diminished by a competing value, to make change happen now.

The Rabbi's Gift

By treating every person with the utmost respect, we develop a culture in which everyone wants to give their best to others, and expects to receive the best from others in return. It is the type of culture everyone deserves, and it is up to us to make it happen.

The Traveler

We are all Travelers. Attitude colors every experience -- it is the lens through which we see the world.

Up The River

We must be prepared to face challenges to new ideas and creative problem-solving, as existing systems are resistant to change.

Water

Water is a powerful metaphor for social change, seeking the lowest level and therefore touching and connecting all things, flowing around what it cannot move, making good things grow, acting as a solvent on things that are stuck, and putting out fire – such as the anger that can too easily consume change agents and the causes they are passionate about.

@I_HadADream

A student ran up to me and said, "My grades are improving, I knew I could do it!" #makebetterhappen @CityYearPhilly